One student described the shooting to the Reno Gazette-Journal. According to the 13-year-old, a teacher approached the armed student outside of Sparks Middle School and told him to put down his gun. The student then opened fire, killing the teacher.

“We heard a pop, like a loud pop, and everybody was screaming and the teacher came to investigate,” the 13-year-old witness told the Gazette-Journal. “I thought it was a firecracker at first, but the student was pointing a gun at the teacher after the teacher told him to put it down, and the student fired a shot at the teacher and the teacher fell and everybody ran away. And we ran across the field to get somewhere safe and while we were running we heard about four or five more shots and we just got somewhere safe. This lady let us into her house.”

Two students identified the victim as a popular math teacher at the school, although the Gazette-Journal was unable to confirm the news with the teacher’s family, who had not yet been contacted by police.

The two wounded students were brought to a local hospital in critical condition, though one has since been upgraded to fair.

UPDATE: The Reno Gazette-Journal has identified the victim as Michael Landsberry, an eighth grade math teacher at the school.

“In my estimation, he was a hero,” said Tom Robinson, the deputy chief of the Reno Police Department. “We know he was trying to intervene.”